Explore the World of Software 2: Kids, Adults, Educational

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Text File | 1989-06-13 | 21.5 KB | 482 lines

User's Guide For: BALLOON SPELLER (c) 1989 by KIDware Portions (c) 1988 by Microsoft Corp. KIDware 1380 156th NE, Suite H2 Bellevue, WA 98007 (206) 725-4859 BALLOON SPELLER User's Guide - Page 2 BALLOON SPELLER BALLOON SPELLER is a program for home or school. You can play three different spelling games using lists of words you input or any of the 70 built-in lists. In each game, you move a hot air balloon around the screen picking up the letters you need. In "Word Flash," the word to be spelled is flashed to you and then you spell the word. In "Word Jumble," the letters of the word are scattered around -- you pick them up in proper order. And, in "Word Guess," you guess the letters in the word to be spelled (a Hangman type game). COMPUTER REQUIREMENTS AND INSTALLATION PROCEDURE: To use BALLOON SPELLER, you need an IBM compatible computer with at least 256K of memory, at least one floppy disk drive, DOS 2.0 (or higher), and color or monochrome graphics. Before using the program, you must do two things: install the program on your disk, then configure the program to your particular system. Depending on the number and types of disk drives you have, follow the given instructions for installing the programs. INSTALLATION ON SINGLE FLOPPY DRIVE SYSTEM: Working with a single drive system can be tricky. Please pay close attention to instructions provided. 1. Place DOS disk in drive A and start system. 2. You first need to format a disk and put a copy of the operating system on it. Type: FORMAT A:/S 3. Replace DOS disk with blank disk and follow instructions provided by computer. 4. When formatting is complete, replace blank disk with BALLOON SPELLER disk and type: COPY A:*.* B: This will allow you to copy the files from the BALLOON SPELLER disk (referred to by DOS as disk A) to your newly formatted disk (referred to by DOS as disk B). Follow instructions provided by computer. 5. Installation is now complete. Put the original copy of the BALLOON SPELLER disk in a safe place; you will always use your copy. Now, place that copy of the program in drive A and proceed to configuration instructions. BALLOON SPELLER User's Guide - Page 3 INSTALLATION ON DUAL FLOPPY DRIVE SYSTEM: Pay close attention to instructions provided. 1. Place DOS disk in drive A and blank disk in drive B; start system. 2. You first need to format a disk and put a copy of the operating system on it. Type: FORMAT B:/S 3. Replace DOS disk in drive A with BALLOON SPELLER disk. Type: COPY A:*.* B: This will allow you to copy the files from the BALLOON SPELLER disk in drive A to your newly formatted disk in drive B. 4. Installation is now complete. Put the original copy of the BALLOON SPELLER disk in a safe place; you will always use your copy. Now, place that copy of the program in drive A and proceed to configuration instructions. INSTALLATION ON HARD DISK SYSTEM: Pay close attention to instructions provided. 1. Start system. 2. You first need to create a directory for the programs. At C: prompt, type: MKDIR C:\SPELL\ This creates a directory named SPELL on your hard disk (you may use another name if you want). Now, move to that directory by typing: CD C:\SPELL\ 3. Place BALLOON SPELLER disk in floppy drive A. Type: COPY A:*.* C: This will allow you to copy the files from the BALLOON SPELLER disk to your hard disk. 4. Installation is now complete. Put the original copy of the BALLOON SPELLER disk in a safe place. Proceed to configuration instructions. BALLOON SPELLER User's Guide - Page 4 CONFIGURATION INSTRUCTIONS: To configure the program to your system, place your copy of the program disk in drive A (or go to directory C:\SPELL\ on a hard disk) and type: BSCON You will be asked two (or three) questions; answer accordingly. The first question asks you if you have color graphics (press 1) or Hercules monochrome graphics (press 2). If you have both, press 1 and use color graphics, because the monochrome graphics simulator will not work properly when both color and monochrome graphics cards are installed. The second question asks if you have a single floppy system (press 1), a dual floppy system (press 2), or a hard drive system (press 3). If you answer dual floppy system (2), you will then be asked which letter designates the drive you will be storing your spelling lists on (press A, B, C, D, or E). Once the program is installed and configured, you can run it. Please note if you ever change your system configuration, you should rerun the configuration program. PROGRAM RUNNING INSTRUCTIONS: Running the program is simple. If you are using floppy drives, place your copy of the program disk in a drive. If using a hard disk, move to the proper directory by typing: CD:\SPELL\ Type BS and press <Enter>. The program will begin running after a few seconds of loading some needed files. Once the title screen appears, press any key to continue. (If the title screen is unreadable, rerun the configuration program making sure you answer the question concerning graphics correctly.) BALLOON SPELLER User's Guide - Page 5 SPELLING LIST EDITOR MENU: The first screen to appear is the list editor menu. You have six choices: 1. Input new word list: choose this option to input a new list. The use of the list editor is quite straightforward. All instructions are provided in the program. The cursor control keys move you around the list, the <Enter> key moves you from word to word, the <Space> bar deletes characters in a forward direction, the <Backspace> key deletes in the reverse direction, and the slash key (/) ends the editing session. Once the list is input, you may save it on disk or print it out. Note when saving a list, the list name must begin with a letter and be no more than 8 characters long. 2. Edit current word list: choose this option to change/save/print the list currently being used by the program. You can add new words or delete old ones. To delete a word simply blank it out using the space bar or backspace key. The program will close up any gaps left in the list. To add a word, type it in a blank space or type over an unwanted word. 3. Read user list from disk: choose this option to read in a list you have previously saved using the list editor. The files you have stored (maximum of 54 files per disk) will be listed. Use the cursor keys to point to the file you wish to read in, then press <Enter>. Once read in, you may edit/save/print that list. 4. Use built-in list: choose this option to use one of the 70 built-in spelling lists. There are 10 lists for each grade level from K to 6. The program will first ask which grade level (K,1,2,3,4,5,6) and then which particular list (1- 10). The built-in spelling lists cannot be changed. You may, however, read in a built-in list, modify it and then save it to your own disk for future use. BALLOON SPELLER User's Guide - Page 6 5. Change cursor/letter input option: choose this option if you want to change the method of inputting your answers in the spelling games. There are two input options. With the Cursor Input option, you use the cursor control keys to move the hot air balloon around the screen picking up letters. This option requires no keyboarding skills. Using the Letter Input option, you simply press the desired letter on the keyboard and the balloon will move and pick up that letter. This option results in faster game play and helps teach letter locations on the keyboard. We suggest the Cursor Input option for younger children, while older children like the faster play of the Letter Input option. Default option is Cursor Input. 6. Go to Game Selection Menu: choose this option to select a game to play. You may only choose this option if a word list has been input or selected. The final option from the list editor menu is stopping the program (press 0); select this option when you no longer want to use the program. Once your spelling list is selected and ready and the desired input option is chosen, you should proceed to the Game Selection Menu. BALLOON SPELLER User's Guide - Page 7 GAME SELECTION MENU: You may choose from three different games. In each game, every word on the spelling list will be used (unless you stop the game before completing the list). Also, in each game, you maneuver a hot air balloon around the screen picking up the desired letters. If using the Cursor Input option, the cursor control keys are used to move the balloon. Once the letter you want is in the balloon's basket, press <Enter> to pick it up. If using the Letter Input option, press the desired letter on the keyboard. The balloon will move to that letter and pick it up. To stop any of the games, simply press the slash (/) key. These instructions are also printed on each game screen. The three games that can be played are: 1. Word Flash: In this game, you first flash the word to be spelled by pressing the <Space> bar. You must then pick up, in proper order, the letters to spell the word. If you make a mistake and pick up a letter out of order, an 'uh-oh' is heard. You are allowed three mistakes before you are given the proper spelling. If you need help, you may press the <Space> bar to flash the word again. But note each additional flash counts as one mistake. 2. Word Jumble: Here, the letters to spell the word are scattered about. You must spell the word by picking up the letters in proper order. Incorrect letters count as one mistake. The word may be flashed by pressing the <Space> bar, but each flash counts as one mistake. You are allowed a maximum of three mistakes per word. 3. Word Guess: A game like Hangman. You guess at letters in the word. If your guess is correct, the letters are shown in their proper position. If your guess is incorrect, you continue. If you make more than five mistakes, the proper spelling will be given to you. You can return to the List Editor Menu screen from the Game Selection Menu by pressing 4 and the program can be stopped by pressing 0. Once you have finished playing a game (either by trying all words in the list or stopping the game), your score will be given to you and a list of the words you had trouble with will be provided. At this point, you will be returned to the Game Selection Menu. BALLOON SPELLER User's Guide - Page 8 HIDDEN MENU OPTION: Realizing this program will usually be used by unattended children, we have added an option that should prevent any accidental or intentional stopping of the program or changing of the spelling lists; it is the Hidden Menu option. The Hidden Menu option works with the Game Selection Menu only. What the option does is turns off the ability to stop the program (pressing 0) and the ability to return to the List Editor Menu (pressing 4). The option is turned off or on by pressing <Ctrl>-H while in the Game Selection Menu. Notice that when the option is on, only one of the three games can be selected and the message "HM On" appears at the lower right hand corner of the screen. When the option is off, the Menu appears as normal. GENERAL COMMENTS: Some other things to be aware of concerning the program: 1. When saving spelling lists on disk, please make sure the disk you want to save the list on is in the proper drive and the drive is ready. The program contains some error trapping routines, but at times erratic behavior occurs when trying to read/write from/to a disk drive that is not properly ready. 2. Similarly, when printing your list, make sure the printer is on-line and ready before starting the print option. 3. If you need to abruptly stop the program at some point, pressing <Ctrl>-Break will accomplish this. Note this will take you completely out of the program, so make sure you have saved any lists you may have input. This option is disabled when using the Hidden Menu option described above. BALLOON SPELLER User's Guide - Page 9 4. Note there are no provisions in the program for deleting unwanted spelling lists. This was done for a purpose--we did not want children to have the ability to accidentally erase a needed list. To delete a file, you must use the DOS ERASE command (refer to your DOS manual). Spelling lists are stored with the name you have given it, plus a .BSL extension. So if you want to erase a file named LIST1 from the disk in drive A:, you would type ERASE A:LIST1.BSL at the DOS prompt. 5. When using Hercules monochrome graphics, the screen may appear compressed; this is normal. If any screen appears scrambled, you have to adjust your monitor's vertical and/or horizontal hold controls. WARRANTY INFORMATION: The BALLOON SPELLER program has been written with care, but there still may be bugs and problems. If you find any such problems, please let us know. We cannot guarantee the program is completely error free. We do guarantee it will load and run. If, within one year of purchase, the programs fail to load and run, simply return the original disk to us (postpaid) for quick replacement. This warranty only applies to manufacturing defects. No further guarantees are expressed or implied. Also note that copying this disk, other than for personal archival purposes, is strictly prohibited by US and world copyright laws. For further information or help, contact us at: KIDware 1380 156th NE, Suite H2 Bellevue, WA 98007 (206) 725-4859 BALLOON SPELLER User's Guide - Page 10 BALLOON SPELLER ORDER FORM The commercial version of BALLOON SPELLER allows 20 words per spelling list, has 70 built-in lists, has a printed user's guide, and sells for just $11.95 ($12.95 for 3.5" disk). Purchasing the commercial version also keeps you informed of future program updates and new program releases. If you use the shareware version of BALLOON SPELLER and like it, we ask that you purchase the commercial version. Thank You! Name ---------------------------------------------------------- Address ------------------------------------------------------- City State Zip ----------------------------- ------ ----------- Please send BALLOON SPELLER on: 5.25" disk ($11.95) 3.5" disk ($12.95) -------- -------- Washington residents must add 8.1% sales tax. Payment Method: Check Money Order VISA/MasterCard --------- --------- -------- Card Number Exp. Date -------------------------------- -------- Signature ----------------------------------------------------- Where did you obtain your shareware copy of BALLOON SPELLER? --------------------------------------------------------------- Send order to: KIDware 1380 156th NE, Suite H2 Bellevue, WA 98007 (206) 725-4859